On Thursday, 2 groups presented their unit projects. Since we have gone long with today's presentations, it's become apparant that we'll need 2 more classes to finish all the groups presentations. Therefore, we will not be having the unit test on Monday, we will have it on Wednesday (many will be absent on Tuesday for soccer, so we can't have it then). On Friday, 2 or 3 more groups will present, depending on how long they are. On Monday the remaining groups will present.

On Wednesday, students attended an OSAP presentation and then worked on their presentations in the library.

OnTuesday students reviewed for the unit test by playing a Jeopardy review game.

Note: there is a DNA review and a review on protein synthesis and biotechnology under class notes. Answers are not available to you at this time, but they can be made available later in the week.

Today we finished discussing restriction enzymes and also went over methylases and DNA ligase as tools used in biotechnology. There are some textbook questions you should try related to this material before you do your test on Monday. Tomorrow is a review class on the whole unit. Wednesday is a work period so you can finish up your work on your project which will be presented on Thursday or Friday of this week. If you have any quesions about your project, please write to me using the Comment function of this blog. Simply click on comment under this post and I will post your question and reply to it here. Good luck soccer players....go Redmen!

On Friday, groups picked their order for presenting their mini-lessons next week. We then began going over the biotechnology note. We discussed restriction enzymes. This topic will continue on Monday. If you haven't already read section 6.1 in the text, you should!

On Thursday, the class completed the performance task on protein synthesis and mutations.

Today we went through the note called Chromosome Structure. There were 2 handouts to go with this note, so if you were absent be sure to get them from me. Students then worked on 2 worksheets: one on mutations, and one on general questions related to protein synthesis. Both these worksheets will help you prepare for Thursday's performance task. One of the worksheets is attached here: http://206.130.199.25/~jennross@fc.amdsb.ca/S0395BA9B.36/Genetics%20Challenge%20Worksheet.rtf
The other worksheet is attached here: http://206.130.199.25/~jennross@fc.amdsb.ca/S0395BA9B.67/Mutations%20Assign.pdf

We also want to assign dates for the class presentations. Your group will be presenting on either Wed, Thurs, or Friday of next week. Meet with your group members to decide which days work best for all of you (i.e., all members will be present). We also set a unit test date of Tuesday May 5. Have a nice day off. You can review protein synthesis, mutations, and chromosome structure for Thursday's performance task.

Today students discussed homework from last Wednesday on operons. We also discussed mutations. Students then explored some of the web activities from Zerobio.com. Tomorrow we will be going over the note called Chromosome Structure, so be sure to have it printed for then.

Both Thursday and Friday were research classes for the Molecular Genetics project. If anyone is having difficulties with this project or have any questions, please see me ASAP.

Today we reviewed the lac operon and then discussed the "trp operon". Finally, we briefly discussed mutations and students were assigned reading about mutations and forming your own note about them. It was suggested that students create a flowchart explaining the different types of mutations. Students were given time to work on the gene control worksheets, the textbook questions, or the mutations note. These should all be finished by Monday. You will have an open-book performance task on this material next Thursday.

On Tuesday, we took up textbook questions related to protein synthesis and we took up the Additional Lab Exercise: Determining the Sequence of Amino Acids in a Protein. We then began going through the note titled Gene Control in Prokaryotes. We discussed the "lac operon".

On Thursday, students went to the library to begin researching their biotechnology topic which will be presented to the class at the end of this unit. Please note, there are some new notes that can be printed.

Today, two groups presented their "dramatic representation" of DNA replication. The third group will present on Tuesday when, hopefully, the whole group will be present. The application project of this unit was then presented. Students formed groups of 4 and picked their topics. You will begin researching your topic tomorrow in the library. Students were then given an activity involving taking a small segment of DNA, transcribing it into mRNA, and then sequencing the polypeptide that would result from translation. This activity is due next Tuesday. There were also some textbook questions assigned at the end of the protein synthesis note that are due on Tuesday.
Have a very hoppy Easter! I'll be away with Envirothon tomorrow.

Today we went over protein synthesis. The note for this is attached on the blog. There's also an attached list of animations and tutorials of this process....I recommend you view a few of these.

On Monday, students worked on preparing their dramatic representation of DNA replication. These "plays" will be performed on Wednesday.

On Friday we went over DNA replication by viewing several online animations/tutorials. Students were given a worksheet on DNA replication that must be finished for homework. Finally, students were divided into 3 large groups and began to plan how to show DNA replication through a dramatic presentation. This will be worked on in Monday's class. If you haven't already printed off the Protein Synthesis note, you should do so now.

On Thursday, grade 10's wrote the OSSLT, so we didn't have class.

Today we began the new unit....Molecular Genetics. We discussed DNA structure and some of the important historical scientists and experiments that led to our understanding of DNA structure. Here's a link to the website that contained the DNA timeline.
http://www.dnai.org/timeline/index.html